


The Favorite

by The_Prince_of_Dots



Category: Thomas Sanders
Genre: Favoritism, Gen, Jealousy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-16 17:11:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12347031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Prince_of_Dots/pseuds/The_Prince_of_Dots
Summary: Roman knew who the favorite was. Takes place between Accepting Anxiety 1 and Accepting Anxiety 2.





	The Favorite

People who don’t grow up with family and friends and bosses who picked favorites often don’t understand how  _hard_  you fight to keep being the ‘favorite child.’ It’s unhealthy–God, we all know it’s unhealthy–but when you see how well you’re treated in comparison to the not favorite, you fight tooth and nail to stay in the place of glory. You do almost anything–cheat, criticize, throw the other under the bus. Sometimes you hate yourself; no, usually you hate yourself. But when faced with the terror of falling from grace, sometimes you can’t help yourself. **  
**

Roman had been the favorite. He was the clear favorite from the start. Logan was boring and serious, someone who not many people could relate to. Patton was ditzy and ridiculous and over-the-top, which tended to annoy people more than anything. Roman, however, was exciting and heroic, not too serious but not overly bubbly. Sure, people said he was dramatic, but he was Creativity, and he manifested as basically a Disney character. The artists, the actors, the writers–all of them could relate at least a bit to Roman. And Thomas liked him the most. He got used to his place on the top too quickly, assured that neither Patton nor Logan could bring him down.

Then came… _him_. Anxiety. A  _literal_  disorder. And also Roman’s sworn villain. After all, there was only one thing that kept hopes and dreams from being realized, and that was fear. Now imagine being in a constant state of fear  _all the time_. That’s Anxiety. He was confident, powerful, smug. Seeing Anxiety have a physical form threw Roman off, terrified him, so he called in help.

And that was his downfall.

He couldn’t stop Anxiety the first time, so he just  _kept coming back_. Worse, the audience  _related_  to him. They  _loved_  him. He was  _mean_ , he didn’t  _help_ , he freaked  _everyone_  out, and whenever he showed up it took all four of the rest of them to counteract whatever he was doing. But despite this, the Fanders kept calling him “smol bby,” “my emo son,” and other ridiculous nonsense. He was the favorite now. Even Logan and Patton liked him. Logan liked him because he would take his side in an argument, even if it was just to annoy Roman. Logan liked him because he was dour and gloomy just like him. Patton liked him because–Roman didn’t even know why Patton liked him. Probably because he acted like an angsty 12 year old and Patton felt fatherly feelings toward anyone like that. Or maybe it was because they were natural opposites, with Patton being  _reasonable_ emotions and Anxiety being  _unreasonable_  emotions. Or maybe it was because Patton was the heart and he loved everyone.

The point was, Roman was losing his spot. And that meant that Thomas wasn’t going to listen to him. Thomas would turn his back on creativity. Thomas would stop trying to achieve his dreams. Thomas would become scared of doing anything that involved a large risk and Thomas would become– _mediocre_. Worse, the Fanders encouraged it. They loved the disorder that was tearing the rest of them down. They loved to see him disrespect the rest of them and their hard work.

He had to become the favorite again. It was the only way to save Thomas! And yet…nothing worked. He tried to show how  _wrong_ Anxiety always was using Disney, but Thomas was agreeing with him the entire time! He tried to intimidate Anxiety by killing a dragon witch–a  _dragon witch!_ –but the others just called him unrealistic. His insults weren’t understood. His olive branches went unnoticed. All he was trying to do was show everyone how  _bad_  Anxiety was, but more and more everyone seemed to consider  _him_  the villain! Everyone was pushing him away to cling tighter to their disorder and he was firmly at the bottom of the rung when it came to Fander Favorites. They even liked  _Logic_  more than him.

And then one day, Anxiety didn’t show up. Roman was overjoyed. Finally, they were free of his nefarious influence! Even Logan agreed that they didn’t need him, and Roman thought that _maybe, maybe_ things would go back to normal.

But it was a trick. Before he could say  _bibbity bobbity boo_  they were against him again, all of them, tag-teaming. All of them mad because he couldn’t consider the only thing that could  _destroy_  him to be a wonderful fluffball that enhanced Thomas’s life. They decided they needed to get him back. They decided that  _all_  of them needed to get him back.

They needed to go to his part of the mindscape.

They needed to go to the place of  _enhanced anxiety_.

They needed to go where the  _enemy_  was in charge.

They needed to go to the only place that might destroy Roman once and for all.

It was obvious who the favorite was.

And it wasn’t him.


End file.
